Statistics About Liver Cancer

Some people use statistics to try to figure out their chance of getting cancer or of being cured. Statistics show what happens with large groups of people. Because no two people are alike, statistics can’t be used to know or predict what will happen to any one person.

These are 2007 statistics from the American Cancer Society about liver cancer.

• Liver cancer is rare in the United States. About 19,000 new cases of primary liver cancer and bile duct cancer will be diagnosed this year.

• About 13,500 of these cancers will be in men. Women make up about 5,500 cases.

• About 17,000 people will die of these cancers in the United States.

• Liver cancer is many times more common in developing countries in Africa and East Asia than in the United States . In many of these countries, it is the most common type of cancer.

In most cases, symptoms of liver cancer do not appear until the disease is advanced.